Hyperledger Aries is infrastructure for blockchain-rooted, peer-to-peer interactions. It includes a shared cryptographic wallet (the secure storage tech, not a UI) for blockchain clientsas well as a communications protocol for allowing off-ledger interactionbetween those clients. This project consumes the cryptographic support provided by Hyperledger Ursa, to provide secure secret management and decentralized key management functionality.

Key Characteristics

A blockchain interface layer (known as a resolver) for creating and signing blockchain transactions

A cryptographic wallet that can be used for secure storage of cryptographic secrets and other information (the secure storage tech, not a UI) used to build blockchain clients

An encrypted messaging system for allowing off-ledger interaction between those clients using multiple transport protocols.

An implementation of ZKP-capable W3C verifiable credentials using the ZKP primitives found in Ursa.

An implementation of the Decentralized Key Management System (DKMS) specification currently being incubated in Hyperledger Indy.

A mechanism to build higher-level protocols and API-like use cases based on the secure messaging functionality described earlier.